Electricity/Telephone poles

I'm sitting in a rather happy position in that I now only need to sort out a small stream for Map 5 of the 29 Let's Go campaign, and other than that I think I've got everything I need for the remainder of the games. I'm strongly tempted to get some small streams from Fat Franks and close that bit off.

Anyway this has meant that I've finally managed to spend some time on bits of scatter I have had lying around in various stages of completion. I mean I've also started some new scatter but I'll get to that.

First up are electricity poles. I had a few "prototypes" from various bits and piece I had lying around but settled on what I feel is the best option and rather economic to boot. I used some old plastic sprues to create them, it seems the airfix aircraft come in a rather handy round sprue which can be combined either with itself or with rectangular bits of sprue. My favourite for this job are Gripping Beast sprues, partly as they were to hand but also as they had great additional points on them that can act as the insulators on the cross beams. Undoubtedly my terminology is wrong but hopefully you get the idea.

You can see the them rather clearly on the examples above (the three on the left) I now realise that the one on the right is glued on in the wrong way, The box on that one is supposed to be a transformer or some such thing. Not sure if they did it the same way back in 1940s but it adds a bit of variety to it all so I'm overlooking historical accuracy on this!

It is all very simple, especially with plastic cement type glue. Clean up sprue, glue on cross piece (in correct orientation of course), drill hole in mdf base, glue sprue into mdf base. Then the usual, sand glued onto mdf, basecoat, paint, flock.

These were the initial prototypes for the sprue version. I've painted the insulators white as I seem to recall white ceramic ones being used, again not sure on the historical accuracy but it gives me some more scatter to fill up my table.

A poor excuse for an AAR

So I got my first game of 2019 in at the weekend. This was the next installment of the 29 Let's Go Campaign and we had finally moved on to the second table: A delaying action at Arthenay.

From German table edge.

From American table edge.

Well the action started and I go so absorbed I didn't take photos or notes. Oh Dear. So what follows is a rough approximation of what occurred, true in spirit if not exactly accurate.

The Americans, commanded by Mike,  started with a dismally low morale roll starting on an 8 whilst the Germans managed an rather outstanding 10. The patrol phase played out with the Americans securing jump off points back at the hedges one on the right flank (for the US) and the other two on the left. Not surprising as that is where more cover is. The Germans had to place one in the "grey box" to the rear so on went into the house just north of the road (US Right Flank) behind the small orchard. One went into the large house across the road and the final went on the US right flank back behind the hedges near the edge of the table. I suspected that Mike would be bringing in a FOO and I didn't want to have all JOPs cluster in an 18in square ready for him to lock down with a barrage and then stroll in.

Given the FOO threat I decided to take the IG 18 option, I swithered between this and a sniper as a FOO counter, last game I had taken a FOO and it starts to feel gamey always going for that option. I figured the 6 HE dice the infantry gun would throw out would be a decent counter for the FOO, especially if I could get him isolated. In addition I took an MMG to bulk up the firepower along with an adjutant to help with the lack of command.

Apart from the suspected FOO I also knew that Mike had to take a Sherman, given the last outing I suspected it would just be the one so was content relying on the hard hitting panzershrek in the platoon on dealing with it. This was not to be the case.

The Americans started with the Sherman coming on via the road with the commander setting them on overwatch and a squad deploying on the right flank out into the ploughed field, adopting a tactical stance. The germans didn't respond.

The Americans then brought on the FOO and a 60mm mortar, the FOO in the corner of the hedges south of the road and the mortar set up in the orchard and went on overwatch. The FOO called up the battery to start the predictable process.

At this point I thought it was best to act before the barrage could get going - or at least start to act to try give myself the best chance of killing the FOO, He was deployed alone and no squad or team nearby to help him out. I deployed the IG 18 and fired at the pesky FOO. A delightful 4 die hit, and Mike obligingly converted three into kills. Checking on the FOO hits table and rolling again resulted in three kill hits (1s and 2s). By any measure that FOO was gone. I was gleefully rubbing my hands together at this point thinking I'd get his FM tumbling already and I could be in with a shot of winning this, especially with his low starting morale and Mike's predisposition to rolling exactly what he didn't need.

Sadly his men shrugged it off with no effect, apparently no one liked Hank anyway.

The hate came back from the Sherman and the 60mm mortar - accumulating shock on the IG and a kill.

The Americans then brought on another squad in front of the 60mm mortar and lining the hedge, and tried to move the squad in the ploughed field although they didn't get far. Mike was rolling a lot of 5s in his command dice which was limiting his ability to activate units but was thundering up the command dice, turn three and already sitting on 5 points.

Now I had deployed a unit, possibly too early, I felt I needed more on the board to split his attention and stop the IG getting killed/routed too soon. I brought on a squad in the central building and threw out some fire at the Americans. I also removed two shock on the IG.

The Sherman fired into the building causing shock and used the MG to put covering fire onto the house. The squad near the mortar jumped the hedge then threw some smoke to cover their move.

I brought on a panzershrek and attempted to nuke the sherman however despite hitting and getting four strike dice I only manage a single net hit due to some good rolls by Mike. The sherman took one point of shock and the driver couldn't be activated in the next phase. I then tried again with the IG, again I managed to hit it but with only four strike dice the Sherman shrugged off the single hit I managed to roll.

Then things became sticky. The panzershrek got focused on by a US sniper who killed one, then the sherman had a crack and killed the other. I converted that into a one point drop in morale. The IG was also getting a lot of attention, the JL taking a wound and dropping to one command initiative.

I pulled on my SL and the remnants of squad (from campaign casualties so far) which was just the LMG team to help out the IG 18. I was chipping away at the squads but the covering fire, tactical stance and poor rolls meant very little was happening. The IG and LMG team were occupying much of the US fire and largely getting shock and removing it, with I think one or two kills.

The US managed to push the squad in the south on their left flank up to the second line of hedges and prepared to push across. I deployed the MMG just outside the house behind a stone wall and proceed to hammer the squad. The leader took a hit and dropped to one command initiative and the FM dropped one point to 7.

The squad made it across the hedge with a decent move to spare and threw some smoke to impair the vision of the German squad and MMG in the house. This got them to a position to be able to use a CoC dice to move a JOP forward to just behind the last hedge they crossed.

This was starting to look ominous for the Germans. With a squad and a Sl still off table the Americans had a good punch still to throw. With the panzershrek gone I would be waiting for the Sherman to move closer before a panzerfaust would be within a range worth trying a shot.

The Americans pushed the squad forward on the left flank and pulled in SL and final squad just behind from the advanced JOP. The new squad threw smoke and the put down some covering fire. The move brought them just past the 90 arc for the MMG which forced me to move them into the house to get cover and reorient the LMG.

Lots more fives for Mike and any spare dice went to beating up the IG 18, which was eventually forced to break. I brought on my second full squad and final unit into the upstairs of the central house and spent a phase hammering into the overstretched squad with every possible unit. I managed to pin them but that was it. with most of the squad alive I would need another 9 points of shock or similar to get them to break.

The US used the fresh squad to start to flank round the house down the road, towards an unprotected JOP in the "grey box" zone. They also hammered the Lone LMG team on the US right flank  which was beaten down to one man with the JL and SL.

At this point I decided to withdraw. That group of two leaders and a LMG was too fragile and too much of a target to survive much longer. My strong point in the central house would have been able to do some serious damage to the US squads eventually although not without some losses themselves. I was 2 points higher in FM thanks to some injuries on his JLs and had 5 casualties from the platoon. With three more maps to play I think I've already taken too many losses to be hanging around much longer.

So another two men lost permanently and one missing the next game, ends up with 7 men missing the next game, so I'll probably need to consider some reinforcements.

Well played to Mike who is getting to grips with Chain of Command and trying to get his Yanks moving forward despite pitifully low movement rolls! We noted that if we played more frequently the game would flow a lot better with less requirement to refer to the rules.

Haberdash!!

Not sure exactly how I started this particular project, saw a post on the dreaded FB about wargaming mats and a mention of a "plush" fabric. Now I have a grass type mat which is 6x4 and serves me well, however I suspect once I start adding hills underneath it, it won't cover the full 6x4 neatly so I may need an option that is a bit larger to cope with this. It also gives me the opportunity to add more variety to the mat as the one I have is rather monotone.

Well having seen that the company were selling mats for well over £100 I though I'd have a week look at fabric options that may suit, and see if they would turn out cheaper. I don't do a whole lot of wargaming so saving the cash for terrain or miniatures tends to be the order of the day!

I browsed through three different fabric sites and handily enough they all offer samples, some entirely free. I selected a number of potential candidate fabrics from each site and then waited impatiently for them to arrive.

First into the letter box was from Rooftop Fabrics and they charge postage I believe for any samples, I think it was £1.93. I got two samples from them, olive plush and kiwi plush. They have a rather pleasant 3mm or so pile so straight off the bat seem to be the most likely candidates, but we shall see how they cope with some paint, to add the glorious variety I seek.

The next in were five samples from Yorkshire Fabric Shop and they were entirely free (up to six free samples). There are some interesting options here but none have much of a pile to them. Not the end of the world by any stretch as it will be more how they cope with paint that should matter. Some of these samples have lovely texture patterns already so with some colour variation they could prove rather spiffing indeed!

The final two samples were from My Fabrics and they had a £3 charge, I think that would cover more than the two samples I selected though.

Onto the paint test - I used two different greens, a yellow ochre and on some panels a burnt umber, just slapped on and moved around with a brush. This largely seems to have worked well, although for the two fabrics with a much longer pile it didn't get in to the base. Apparently using a comb helps, which I did dabble with, but clearly I need more practise!

First up are the two 3mm pile plush fabric from rooftop fabrics. Olive on the left and kiwi on the right although there is probably more difference due to the paint than the original colour.

And at an angle to try show the pile and texture a little.

Next four of the offerings from Yorkshire Fabrics, yes I know there was five originally but the fifth was flat and after paint just looked like painted cloth. Nothing special so I decided to cut it out of the test at this point.

Two on left are same pattern different colours; two on the right are same pattern (different colours)

And again at an angle, and annoying laid out differently. The top two are the ones from the left; the bottom two are the ones from the right.

Finally the two longer pile samples from My Fabrics.

Angled shot.

Right well what has this achieved then? I've managed to rule out most of them for a variety of reasons. The two plushes from rooftop fabrics are by far my favourite. They were easy to work with and took the paint well, which means I should be able to get a good variation and texture across a full 6x4 or slightly larger of course. At £15.50 for 1m it comes in 34.50 (including shipping) for a 2x1.5m section or 6ft 6in x 4ft 11in approximately. That's only slightly larger than my current 6x4 mat so it may become necessary to go a bit bigger just to make sure. The limit is on the width, it won't go above 1.5m as that is the factory standard for this fabric apparently.

I already mentioned I ruled out one of the Yorkshire Fabrics samples as it lacked texture or interest. The other four were based on two patterns, each of two colours. I preferred the effect of the right hand or bottom variation in the pictures above. The other pattern actually looks like it would make a good option for some fields, maybe in a smaller scale, but the patterning is beautiful and really gives a broken ground appearance in my view. Now of the preferred variant it runs in at £18.99 per metre and comes in a maximum width of 1.35m, so running in at close to £37.98 and not as wide as the option above. The "broken ground" variant is more expensive at £26.99 per metre with a width of 1.37m. If they were utterly stunning they would make it a harder choice but with the limited width and increase in cost they get ruled out.

Finally onto MyFabrics. The shorter pile (left side) comes in at £17.05 per metre while the longer pile (and more useful in my view) comes in at £8.95 per metre both at 1.5m width. Even basic arithmetic will let you know that the latter is by far the cheapest option and if I was looking for a faux fur option for a mat then this would be my choice. In fact I may well get some with the option of creating wheat fields, rough grass areas and thatch roofing. The negative I see is perhaps having to trim it down a little unless you want the whole mat looking the same length, which given the effects you can create wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

So what have I learned? Well samples are a nice option for working stuff out! I'm glad I spent the time and effort running this wee test as it has cleared up in my mind what I am looking to achieve and also how I may go about that. I think I will go with the olive plush but try get it in over 2m length (maybe just go for 3m for ease), perhaps looking to piece some of the extra into adding to the width. We shall see.

A bridge over (un)troubled water

The icy and frosty weather recently has reinforced one of the problems we face at our little cottage. When the girlfriend is putting her horses out in the field in the morning, usually at 6am before she heads off to work, the access to two of the fields is restricted by a stream and so she has to take them down a country road for about 100-150m depending on which field she takes them too.

In good weather and daylight this isn't much of an issue, more an inconvenience, however once it is icy and dark it does become rather dangerous, for her and the horses. As I am such a magnificent bloke and spent a good bit of time fetishizing bridges in the Royal Engineers I came up with a decidedly genius plan to bridge the stream at a suitable location thus allowing access to three different field gates all through one route. Huzzah!

The diagram above shows what the issue was, hopefully! The scale is off, but it gives the general idea of the problem. The road it self bends and goes down hill towards the stream before rising on the other side of it. The 1 and 2 in grey boxes are the current gate entry points to the fields. The brown 1,2 and 3 are where I plan on making the new entry points so that the horses can go out entirely within our own property. It should also mean they come in a lot easier too as they will probably just trot themselves up to the stables (if we leave the gate open) when it gets dark in the evening. I'll probably also set up a gate of some sort (electric wire likely) across the path at the stables to allow for this.

Anyway that is the problem and as mentioned my previous bimbling it means I get to build a bridge, something I must admit I really enjoy doing. The first step was to use some old concrete blocks scavenged from an broken wall to create two piers either side of the stream. The blocks are the type with two holes in them so once laid and offset I drove piles through to hold it all together and filled both piers with concrete.

The clear span is only 1600mm so not a huge gap, and it won't have heavy traffic so these piers will do the job. The bridge will be a timber one using seven 47x150mm beams at 2400mm. The bridge will be 1500mm wide (max).

The first job was to cut the timber to 2400 and profile the ends to allow for a sloped rise onto the bridge proper. These timbers were painted with a cuprinol timber treatment. They are already pressure-treated but as they will be over water and getting damp a lot I want to go a bit further on the protection. I used the offcuts from the main beams to make up some spacers that will keep the beams at the desired spacing while I sort the seating and decking.

So that is the wood beam structure in place with some uprights of 47x50mm which will become the railings. I've cut decking planks to size to fit the width of 1500mm although I'm keeping one back for any adjustments. This leaves me with a number of 1200mm length decking planks, which I may use near the uprights and then also cut about in half and have them butt-up to make 1500mm as required. I'll see how far I get with the full width ones first. The decking needs painted before getting screwed into position, and rather than start on that I decided to watch the rugby!